Sunday, April 21, 2013

Weather Rewind -- April 14-20, 2013

Temperatures averaged 3.4 degrees above average last week, thanks in part to a near 80 degree Friday in advance of a cold front that brought evening rain and thunder to the Delaware Valley. The mildness was also evident in Tuesday and Wednesday's high temperatures as both days reached the mid 70's in the city and lower 70's in much of the Delaware Valley thanks to warmth ahead of a cool front that briefly settled south of the city for Thursday with the increased clouds and even a few showers passing through the region during the afternoon hours. By and large, however, the lion's share of rain that fell last week fell on Friday night -- over a half inch in Philadelphia, more in the western suburbs, with the cold front and line of thunderstorms that passed through.

The big story nationally was that very same storm system that brought rain to us. It brought as much as fifteen inches of snow to suburban Minneapolis on Thursday. Some portions of Minnesota are still under over two feet of snow cover as we round the home stretch for April -- a bit unusual for this time of the year, even for them. Minneapolis is on track for its fourth coldest April on record and still has yet to record a 60 degree day this year. And you thought the chill in March and early April was bad around here...

Just under 30 percent of the country still has some snow on the ground as of a couple of days ago, which is a similar percentage to a month ago at this time. Last year at this time? Just six percent, mainly across the Rockies and across a small portion of Northern Minnesota.